INDIANAPOLIS — What the Indianapolis Colts did on Thursday night in the 2019 NFL Draft – what the Colts did to us – probably made tactical sense. It probably will work out just fine. Knowing Colts general manager Chris Ballard, who made history last year by drafting All-Pro rookies Quenton Nelson and Darius Leonard, it might just be brilliant.

Still hurts.

For NFL fans, which seems to be almost everybody around here, the first round of the NFL Draft is one of the best days of the year. It’s our Christmas in April. And we just got Grinch’d.

Buy Photo

Chris Ballard, General Manager of the Colts, after the first round of the NFL Draft, at the Colts Complex, Indianapolis, Thursday, April 25, 2019. (Photo: RobertScheer, Robert Scheer/IndyStar)

More than three hours after the draft began on ESPN, the Colts were finally on the clock at 11:02 p.m. They had the No. 26 overall pick, and so many fabulous players at positions of need had fallen to them. It was just a matter of which future NFL star Ballard was going to draft, and any minute now he’s going to …

Wait, what’s that on the bottom of the ESPN screen?

The Colts traded the pick to the Washington Redskins?

Sigh. That’s exactly what they did. They sent Washington the No. 26 overall pick in exchange for a pair of second-round selections: the No. 46 overall pick on Friday, and the Redskins’ second-rounder in 2020.

We’re going to feel differently about this in about 24 hours, after Ballard pulls a future Pro Bowler or two out of his hat in the second and third rounds on Friday, but right now it feels like this: Like Ballard slipped down our chimney, took our presents, took the tree, even took our last can of Who Hash.

And I don’t even like Who Hash! But I sure would have liked to write about the Colts drafting Ole Miss receiver D.K. Metcalf, who goes 6-3, 228 pounds and still runs the 40-yard dash faster T.Y. Hilton. Or I’d have loved to write about the Colts drafting Mississippi State defensive end Montez Sweat, who goes 6-6, 260 pounds and ran a 40-yard dash at the 2019 NFL Combine in Indianapolis – 4.41 seconds; now go back and read his height and weight again – that rendered Colts owner Jim Irsay almost speechless on Twitter.

Any idea how hard it is to render Jim Irsay almost speechless on Twitter?

Both those guys, Metcalf and Sweat, were available when the Colts went on the clock at 11:02 p.m. So was Notre Dame defensive tackle Jerry Tillery.

Ballard had warned us Monday at his pre-draft news conference that he might do exactly this. He’d said this draft had unbelievable depth from roughly the No. 15 overall pick to No. 70, making me think he might move back to acquire few second-rounders. And then, when his news conference ended, he said: “We’ll be together Thursday.”

Ballard rose to leave, then smirked. Literally, he smirked.

“Or maybe not,” he said. “Maybe we’ll be together Friday.”

Then he laughed his way out of the room.

Wasn’t funny then, Chris, and it’s not funny now. And I say that knowing Friday will be a blast, with the Colts now owning three picks in the second round (Nos. 34, 46 and 59) and a pick in the third round (No. 89). That sounds all well and good, but I’m not into delayed gratification.

Let’s talk about right now, about the fun other people – everyone else in the NFL, pretty much – was having Thursday night before the Colts made like Lucy and pulled that draft pick away from us right when we were about to kick it.

First, the Raiders, because this was just so damn Raider of them. The same franchise that traded the best edge rusher in the NFL last season, Khalil Mack, used the No. 4 overall pick to select an edge rusher. And not the highest-rated edge rusher in the draft. That would be – or would have been – Kentucky’s Josh Allen.

Thanks to the Raiders, Allen ended up in the AFC South instead; he went seventh overall to Jacksonville, where he will be a problem for the Colts. Especially since they traded the No. 26 pick before they could draft someone to block him. Sorry. I’m pouting.

The history was Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray becoming the shortest quarterback drafted No. 1 overall, the first athlete to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft and the MLB Draft (the Oakland A’s took him ninth overall in 2018), and the first college quarterback to follow his predecessor, Baker Mayfield a year ago to Cleveland, as the NFL’s first overall pick.

The mystery was the way Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins, who smashed most of the major Big Ten passing records in 2018, plummeted to his hometown Washington Redskins at No. 15. The New York Giants used the No. 6 overall pick on Duke’s Daniel Jones as the heir to Eli Manning, while the quarterback-starved Miami Dolphins skipped the position entirely by choosing Clemson defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. Kind of like the Colts skipped the first round by …

Sorry.

But after all that, after both inside linebacker-playing Devin’s were drafted – LSU’s Devin White by the Bucs at No. 5, Michigan’s Devin Bush by the Steelers at No 10 – after all those interior linemen from Clemson (Ferrell, Wilkins and DT Dexter Lawrence, 17th to the Giants) and Alabama (DT Quinnen Williams, No. 3 to the Jets; OT Jonah Williams, No. 11 to the Bengals), at 11:02 p.m. the Colts were finally on the clock. Less than five minutes later, well below the 10-minute allotment, came the announcement on ESPN: The Colts have traded the pick to Washington.

That was late Thursday night, and as I write this, it’s almost Friday. And you know what? I’m starting to feel better already. I hope you are, too. Because our Christmas in April, it’s coming.

It’s coming Friday, and there’s going to be a whole lot of new toys – I predict a receiver, a pass-rusher, a cornerback and a safety – to unwrap.